Brant Bjork Bio 2018
Brant Bjork has spent over a quarter-century at the epicenter of Californian desert rock. From cutting his teeth alongside Fatso Jetson’s Mario Lalli in hardcore punkers De-Con to drumming and composing on Kyuss’ landmark early albums, to propelling the seminal fuzz of Fu Manchu from 1994-2001 while producing other bands, putting together offshoot projects like Ché, embarking on his solo career as a singer, guitarist and bandleader, founding his own record label and more, his history is a winding narrative of relentless, unflinching creativity.
For someone so outwardly laid back, he’s never really taken a break. And while Bjork has shown different sides of himself on albums like his funk-laden 1999 solo debut, Jalamanta, the mellow Local Angel (2004), 2007’s mostly-acoustic Tres Dias, and heavier rockers Somera Sól (2007), Gods & Goddesses (2010) and the two most recent outings with The Low Desert Punk Band, he’s maintained a natural representation of himself in his material, whether that’s coming across in the Thin Lizzy-isms of the faux-full-band 2002 release Brant Bjork and the Operators (actually just Bjork playing mostly by himself) or the weedy, in-the-jam-room spirit of “Dave’s War” from Tao of the Devil. When you’re listening to Brant Bjork, you know it, because there’s no one else who sounds quite like him.
That fact and years of hard touring have positioned Brant Bjork as an ambassador for the Southern California desert and the musical movement birthed there in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. As underground interest has surged in recent years, Bjork has been a pivotal figurehead, realigning with his former Kyuss bandmate John Garcia to drum and write in Kyuss Lives!/Vista Chino, celebrating and building on that legacy while giving a new generation of fans the chance to see it happen in real-time.
Having told his story in films like Kate McCabe’s Sabbia (2006) and the documentaries Such Hawks Such Hounds (2008) and Lo Sound Desert (2015), he’s represented desert rock at home and abroad with no less honesty than that which he poured into the music helping to create it. The same impulse led to the founding of his Desert Generator festival which transformed into Stoned and Dusted, an annual festival held in Pioneertown, CA, with an international reach capturing the intimacy and timeless aura of the desert culture in a secret desert location, and an evolution that looks to continue into the foreseeable future.
Bjork’s work, with any project, has always had a rebellious sensibility. He’s always walked his own path. But more, his career through Kyuss, Fu Manchu, Ché, Vista Chino, and his crucial solo work has been about freedom through rock and roll, attained by the truest representation of the person and the place as art. This, along with a whole lot of groove, is what has helped Brant Bjork define desert rock as a worldwide phenomenon, and whatever comes next, it is what will continue to make him its most indispensable practitioner.
Brant Bjork Partial Discography: With Kyuss as drummer, songwriter: 1990 Sons of Kyuss 1991 Wretch 1992 Blues for the Red Sun 1994 Kyuss, aka Welcome to Sky Valley 2000 Muchas Gracias: The Best of Kyuss
With De-Con as drummer: 1995 Balls for Days
With Fu Manchu as drummer: 1994 No One Rides for Free (Producer only) 1997 The Action is Go 1999 Eatin' Dust 1999 King of the Road 2001 California Crossing
With Ché as guitarist/vocalist/composer: 2000 Sounds of Liberation
With Mondo Generator as drummer: 2000 Cocaine Rodeo 2003 A Drug Problem That Never Existed
With Vista Chino as drummer/composer: 2013 Peace
Solo and solo bands: 1999 Jalamanta 2002 Brant Bjork and the Operators 2003 Keep Your Cool 2004 Local Angel 2005 Saved by Magic (Brant Bjork & the Bros.) 2007 Tres Dias 2007 Somera Sól (Brant Bjork & the Bros.) 2008 Punk Rock Guilt 2010 Gods and Goddesses 2014 Black Power Flower (Brant Bjork & the Low Desert Punk Band) 2016 Tao of the Devil 2017 Europe ‘16 2018 Mankind Woman 2019 Jacoozzi
Others: 1995 Solarfeast, Gossamer (Producer) 1998 Desert Sessions Vol. 1 & 2 (Drums, Bass) 1999 Desert Sessions Vol. 5 & 6 (Drums, Guitar) 2004 Auf Der Maur, Auf Der Maur (Drums) 2005 Yellow #5, Demon Crossing (Drums) 2006 Ten East, Extraterrestrial Highway (Bass)